| Tagline: | festival for art and digital culture |
|---|---|
| Venues: | Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Podewil |
| Date: | 30.01 â 03.02.2008 |
| Organisation: | Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH |
Do you conspire?
Under the motto CONSPIRE... transmediale.08 aimed at examining dubious worlds of story-telling and remote opinion making in order to look critically at those means of creative conspiratorial strategies, that offer the potential to uncover new forms of expression in digital discourse. With conspirative speculations taking over society's cultural rules the distinction between truth and fiction was no longer possible and suddenly many things turned evil. The programme included artists who challenged, undermined and bypassed each other in their hidden and unspoken strategies of mystification.
festival theme
At a time of heightened alert in which we are increasingly asked to exchange our basic freedoms for a stronger sense of personal security, conspiracy and speculation become the cultural genres of the digital age. Elusive potential evils become unseen opponents in a battle of truth versus fiction where it is no longer possible to distinguish one from the other. The internet, and with it our means of instantaneous telecommunications, connectivity, and ease of mobility begin instead to reveal a world of all-encompassing mystery delineated by imperceptible chatter, cryptic messages and a steeped sense of personal introspection. Is our natural sense of trust and openness as a global society in danger of being engulfed by a spectacle of anonymous fear?
As a call to CONSPIRE transmediate.08 aims at those cross-disciplinary tinkerers, conspiratorial spelunkers, and stealth-driven strategists who challenge, subvert, undermine and bypass those hidden and unspoken rules, codes of conduct and assumed truths entrenched within our fictionalised world. Grasping the nature, structure and atmospheres that define what we imagine conspiracy to be the festival turns the obvious rhetoric of post 9/11 hysteria around to focus on the conspiratorial act as a strategic, creative and poetic collaboration whispered within the breath of a fleeting moment. And ultimately, we all love conspiracy, that very mortal state of mind and being driving the inexplicable urge to spin plausibility out of fantasy, seamlessly fusing coincidence with conjecture. As a means by which to explain the incomprehensible, conspiracy is a human condition blind to history, culture, tradition, geography or ideology ... the essential cure-all for our time.
Do you conspire?
festival catalogue preface
With the theme CONSPIRE... this year's festival launches into a new era of speculatively charged and creative ventures. My personal thanks go to the inspired and tireless energy of my predecessors, Micky Kwella for establishing the critical contours of an event beyond the confines of an emergent art of ânew media', and to Andreas Broeckmann for heroically crafting the exploration of this hybrid and highly unstable form of transdiscipllnary artistic expression into one the most acclaimed events of Its kind. The transmediale Is not only an event that Innovatively reflects on contemporary art but a complex and autonomous project driven by a passion in exploring the significant cultural, political and societal intersections of art, media and technology. Returning to Berlinâs landmark House of World Cultures (HKW)... once itself a (conspiratorial?) symbol of the divided cityâs Cold War intrigues... transmediale seeks to stake a claim in high-lighting the role of digital art and culture as an intrinsic element of global contemporary society. Our cooperation with the HKW envisions a strong annual exhibition in addition to the many festival programmes, including screenings, event lounges and conferences. Conspire. edition 01 of the transmediale parcours, the festival's new publication series making its debut this year, thematically strolls through and connects all of the festivals segments.
The quality and scope with which transmediale Is able to do this, and make the connections between art, science and society visible to a broad local and international audience is due in great part to the ardent financial support of the German Federal Cultural Foundation Together with our other key partners Including the Federal Agency for Civic Education who helped bring in the worldâs leading thinkers and cultural personalities for the conference, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg for reinforcing the continued development of transmediale's regional network, and the German Foreign Office in enabling the participation of leading international artists, the significance and benefits of transmedialeâs crucial contribution to the regionâs cultural, economic and educational development is recognized.
Equally significant to this public funded support are the close collaborations transmediale seeks to establish with innovative local firms sharing our vision of creative partnership such as Serve-U who keep us running throughout the year and Gravis who are spotlighting a transmediale artist and providing the transmediale.08 Award.
With the recent opening of the Vilem__Flusser Archive at Berlinâs University of Arts (UdK) transmediale has added a new Award for Theory and Critical Artistic Research in honor of the Czech media philosopher, and In conjunction with the Canadian Embassyâs Marshall McLuhan Salon has initiated a lecture series taking its cues from the influential communications theorist. Holding all this together is the Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH, the cultural agency that allows us to concentrate on our key task, designing the festival. Without them, the truly great transmediale team and the board of advisors who have entrusted me as new artistic director with the future success of the festival, transmediale would not be the unique and challenging event It has grown up to become.
Stephen Kovats
On a conference lasting for several days researchers and scientists argued about various topics concerning the threatening reality of ongoing conspiracy deriving from online-networks including the post hysteria of 9/11. Ethic, aesthetic and forensic questions were combined with the search for the cultural origin of conspiracy and one wondered whether it could be an intelligent and enjoyable strategy to create tempting curiosity for a brave disclosure of mysteries. The exhibition and the film & video programme dealt with anti-conspiratorial strategies and the various kinds of performances were engaged in different aspects of the global network that is the internet. The jury session by definition is a conspiratorial act: it seemingly embodied the arbitrary execution of power and through lurking dynamics and decision-making darting sideways in often unexpected fashions a winner was selected in an almost haphazard manner.
transmediale Award
Dedicated to current positions in digital arts and media, it is an open competition, into which artists are invited to enter their current work. The jury of this yearâs award competition were Olga Goriunova, Nat Muller, Florian WĂŒst, Mihaela Vasile, and Wonil Rhee.
Vilem Flusser Theory Award
In order to reflect the growing number of theoretical and critical practice works submitted for the competition, the festival announced the creation of this award. In collaboration with the recently opened Vilem Flusser Archive at the UniversitĂ€t der KĂŒnste in Berlin.
The festival's booklet comprises the programme, artworks, and texts of this festival's edition. The transmediale parcours makes its debut as a 'pilot' publication with CONSPIRE. transmediale parcours has been launched to reflect upon the research as well as artistic and critical background behind the particular year's theme.
team
Stephen Kovats Artistic Director, Thomas Munz Editor & Program Curator, NataĆĄa PetreĆĄin-BachelezExhibition Curator, Magdalena Rothweiler Festival Manager, Sibylle Kerlisch Production Director, Laleh Torabi Graphic Design, Annette SchĂ€fer Press, Ulla Drenckhan, Achim MĂŒller Marketing and Strategy, Alejandra PĂ©rez NĂșñez, Stefan Riekeles Program Co-Curators, Diana Artus Associate Editor, Franziska Bornefeld Press Assistant & Public Relations, Valeska BĂŒhrer Assistant Curator, Tina Ebner Festival Management Assistant, Markus Huber Conference Program, Klaus Scheuermann External Events Coordinator, Shilla SchlĂŒsslmayr, Wolfgang Wirsching Program Interns, Jonathan Gröger Photography, serve-u, Phillip SĂŒnderhauf, Andreas Buchholz Technical Directors, Ludmila Demke, Marc Klische Assistants to the Technical Directors, Maaskant, Ruth M. Lorenz, Robert Hoffmann Interior Festival Design, Britt Dunse Web Design, Tim Kleigrewe Web Programming, Britt Dunse + club real Video Trailer, Kassian Troyer Sound Video Trailer, Sara Tirelli Video Documentation, Alejandro Duque Live Streaming
Advisory Board Alex Adriaansens, Marie Cathleen Haff, Saskia Sassen, Yukiko Shikata, Siegfried Zielinski
supporters
Main funders: Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Sponsors: Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Bundeszentrale fĂŒr politische Bildung, AuswĂ€rtiges Amt, Skoda, GRAVIS, serve-u technical support
media partners arte tv, brand eins, radioeins, die tageszeitung, TELEPOLIS, Zitty Berlin
Partners: Avid Technology GmbH Bureau des Art Plastiques / CulturesFrance - Französische Botschaft, DIRAC - DirecciĂłn de Asuntos Culturales, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores Gobierno de Chile, Echoo Konferenz Dolmetschen, Deutsche Gesellschaft fĂŒr Technische, Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, Film und Video Print, Historisch-Technisches Informationszentrum PeenemĂŒnde, IN-Berlin, Maison dâAilleurs, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Oktoberdruck, V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media, Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Supporters: Australian Embassy Berlin, Bionade, Botschaft der Republik Chile, Botschaft der USA, Botschaft von Finnland, Botschaft von Kanada, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Deutsche Wochenschau, dockswiss, Goethe Institut, Gunter Dowe Modellbau, Ăsterreichisches Kulturforum Berlin, Pro Helvetia Schweizer Kulturstiftung, Schwedische Botschaft, TonbĂŒro